#19 Gamecocks sweep Clemson

COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 19 South Carolina women’s tennis (4-1) earned a Palmetto Series point with a 4-0 sweep against Clemson on Thursday.

The Gamecocks won the doubles point and three consecutive singles matches in straight sets to defeat the Tigers for the second straight match at the Carolina Tennis Center. With the win, South Carolina evened the all-time series at 27-27. The team’s four consecutive wins over the Tigers is its longest winning streak since rattling off six straight from 1997 to 2002.

The Gamecocks took a 1-0 team advantage after securing the doubles point with two new tandem combinations. Megan Davies and Rachel Rohrabacher, who were paired in doubles for the first time in dual match play, cruised to a 6-2 doubles win over Ally Miller-Krasilnikov and Tate Schroeder. Prior to Thursday’s match, the only time the two had been paired previously was at the FGCU Spring Invite, defeating Kansas’ Amber Policare and Nina Khmelnitckaia, 6-1. With the win, Davies is 15-6 and Rohrabacher is 9-2 in fall and spring doubles play. Junior Paige Cline played doubles for the first time in 2018, helping partner Hadley Berg earn a 6-3 win against Constanza Gorches and Sydney Riley. The pair of All-Americans, who went 3-4 together in 2017 fall play, carried a 3-1 lead en route to a 6-3 win.

The Gamecocks will head to the University of Wisconsin to compete in the 2018 ITA Team Indoor National Championships from Feb. 9-12. The appearance marks the first career appearance in the event for Epley. Fifteen other teams advanced to ITA Team Indoors, including UCLA, Duke, Pepperdine, Auburn, Texas, Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Texas Tech, Georgia, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, North Carolina and Florida.